


In Your Eyes

by Struckk



Category: The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Psychic Bond
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-23
Updated: 2015-03-12
Packaged: 2018-03-14 20:03:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3423767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Struckk/pseuds/Struckk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jacob Stone is trying to put his life back together after spending the past two years in prison. Cassandra Cillion is stuck in an unhappy relationship and a dead end job. They are two, totally opposite people, living at different ends of the United States. But one day they realize that they share a psychic connection that allows them to see, hear, and feel the others experience. An AU inspired by the movie In Your Eyes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I've recently become obsessed with the movie In Your Eyes. The entire time I was watching it I couldn't help but think that it would make an excellent AU for Jake and Cassandra. If you haven't seen it I highly recommend watching it, especially if you're a Jassandra shipper! That said, you should still be able to enjoy this story even if you haven't watched the movie. If the beginning is a little confusing, things will start to come together around chapter 2 (or 3 if you count the prologue). For those who have seen the movie, this won't be exactly the same. After the prologue there will be some differences.

Fear.

No, not fear. He wasn’t scared exactly. It was more like anxiety. He was feeling anxious. And cold.

Jacob Stone could not understand why he was experiencing these feelings. The ten year old was sitting in his desk at the back of the classroom, waiting for his teacher to hand back a test the class had taken the previous week.

He knew he had aced the test, he wasn’t worried about his grade. Though, Jake supposed the anxiety could be coming from a fear of what his friends or family might think if they found out just how easy the subject matter came to him. In this small town the important thing to do was to blend in, and when all your friends struggled to maintain a C average, being as smart as Jake was didn’t make blending in easy.

But that didn’t explain why Jake was so cold. It wasn’t particularly hot that day, but it certainly wasn’t cold. Why was he shivering?

“Are you okay?” his teacher asked, setting the marked test face down on his desk. Jake just nodded and offered a weak smile. His teacher gave him a look, as if deciding whether to believe him or not, but then walked off, leaving Jake to sneak a peek at his grade.

Turning just the corner of the test over, Jake revealed a large A+ written in red ink next to his teacher’s messing scribbling. Squinting, the young boy was pretty sure he made out the words “Excellent Work.”

He smiled to himself, quickly tucking the test into his desk and wrapping his arms around him. Why was he shivering so much? This couldn’t be normal.

 

…

 

She didn’t think it would be this high.

She had been excited when she saw the hill from the bottom, but now that she was at the top she suddenly started to feel nervous.

Cassandra could hear her mom calling to her from a few feet behind, though it sounded like she was miles away. Cassandra was lost in her own little world, tuning out those around her and focusing only on herself and the sled that she was sitting in.

She didn’t have to go down. She could get up and walk back to the safety of her mom. They could walk home, and Cassandra could warm up with a mug of hot chocolate by the fireplace.

But Cassandra, though only a young girl, was sick of living in a bubble. She wanted to feel alive. Taking a deep breath, Cassandra closed her eyes and leaned forward, the sled beneath her suddenly coming to life.

 

…

 

He was moving. How was he moving? Jake could feel the wind whipping in his face, it brought tears to his eyes. The anxiety had left him and he was smiling. He felt alive.

What was happening? A part of Jake felt like he was moving but he realized that he was still sitting at his desk. Around him he could see the unhappy faces and hear the disappointed groans of his group of friends as they saw the grades on their tests. But at the same time he didn’t feel like he was in the classroom. He was somewhere cold, somewhere he had never been before. He was somewhere fun.

 

…

 

Cassandra felt alive.

Her eyes were still closed but she could feel everything. She laughed, soaking up every bit of the rush of excitement that soaked through her veins. She could get used to this feeling.

Someone was calling to her off in the distance. Who was that? Her mom? She could barely make out what was being said.

“Cassandra, honey! Jump off! Cassandra, jump off!”

Cassandra was confused. Why would she want to get off? Her mom tended to worry a bit too much. She loved her mom, but the overprotectiveness was a huge pain most of the time. Still, with her mother’s voice bringing her back to the real world, Cassandra opened her eyes, just briefly. It was still long enough to see the tree directly in front of her…

 

…

 

Before he knew what was happening, Jake was on the floor. His body convulsed in pain, his teacher and classmates rushing to his aid

 

…

 

Cassandra hit the tree hard and blacked out. Her mom came running over immediately, as well as several other parents who had witnessed the accident. The next time the young girl opened her eyes she was in the hospital with a concussion and several stitches.


	2. Chapter 2

It was several years later when Cassandra found herself mopping up the floor in a hospital hallway. The redhead had developed a love/hate relationship with hospitals. She hated them in the sense that the worst moments of her life had been spent in them. But, at the same time, she had spent so much time in hospitals over the years that they had become a place that she was so incredibly comfortable in. As much as she hated them, she couldn’t help but feel at peace while walking these halls, and it was for that reason she had taken the job as a janitor at her local hospital.

This wasn’t how Cassandra had imagined her life would end up. She had been a smart kid, with top grades and a wall full of trophies. Her parents had had big plans for her. But life is funny, and things rarely tend to go as planned. Fate had different plans in store for Cassandra and it was because of that she found herself working the night shift as the hospital janitor.

It wasn’t all bad though. Cassandra glanced up from her mopping to steal a glance at Phillip Porter, the handsome young doctor that she had been seeing the past couple years. Phil had been there for her when no one else had, and she couldn’t believe her luck that she had found a man like him. Cassandra smiled as he looked up from his clipboard and met her gaze. He returned it, half heartedly, before starting towards her. However, instead of stopping to say hello, or even acknowledging that she was in the hallway at all, Phil walked past her as if she wasn’t even there.

It was okay, though. Cassandra was used to that. Phil was a busy man, and an asset to the hospital. He didn’t always have time for her when he was at work. She understood that. Cassandra had work to do, too. Quickly snapping out of her thoughts, she turned her attention back to her mop and the dirty floor.

 

…

 

Jake walked through the door to his favourite bar for the first time in a long time. Nothing had changed. Of course nothing had changed. Nothing ever changed in this place.

He spotted his old friend Lamia sitting alone at the bar and made his way over to her. He took a seat in the stool next to her and signalled to the bartender to bring him a beer.

“Took you long enough, cowboy,” Lamia didn’t bother to look in his direction as she spoke. “You’ve been out of prison for what, two days now? And you’re just finally making your way back to this old place?”

Jake shrugged, sipping the bottle the bartender had brought him. “I figured I should lay low a bit. Try and get my life straightened out first, ya know?”

“You do all that in two days?”

“Nope,” Jake smiled. “But I got a job and that’s a start.”

“Well then, I suppose that means you can buy me a drink, then?” Lamia finally turned to him, a sly smile on her face.

Jake didn’t say anything, but signalled to the bartender to bring a second beer over. He had known Lamia long enough to know that was her drink of choice. Once it was delivered, she raised her bottle to Jake.

“Cheers,” she said as he clinked his bottle to hers.

“So what have you been up to since I last saw ya, Lamia?” Jake asked.

“Oh you know, same old same old,” she answered casually. “Oh, there is one thing that’s changed.”

“And what’s that?”

It was at that moment that a burly looking man approached the two, a sour look on his face.

Lamia smiled. “Just that there’s a man I’ve been seeing.”

Jake turned to look at the man that had approached, realizing immediately that he must be Lamia’s boyfriend. “Hey man. This ain’t what it looks like.”

“It looks like you’re buying drinks for my girl,” the man grumbled as he raised his fist.

Jake hit the ground before he even had a chance to apologize, to explain that he and Lamia were just old friends who hadn’t seen each other in awhile.

 

…

 

Cassandra didn’t know what happened. One moment she was in the hospital lobby, silently mopping, the next she was laying in a heap on the floor. She had stumbled over her cart of janitorial supplies on her way down, knocking it over with her.

“ _Not this, not again_ ," she thought to herself as people came running over to her aid. Amongst those rushing over were Phil, as well as Ezekiel Jones, an orderly she had befriended during her time at the hospital.

“Cassandra, are you okay? Ezekiel asked, helping her up.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine,” she smiled weakly. She wasn’t fine, but she didn’t want to admit that. “It’s okay, Jones. You should get back to work, I’m fine. Really.”

Ezekiel looked hesitant, but he nodded and walked off, glancing over his shoulder at his friend to make sure she was still standing. The other people who had come over also started to drift off, leaving just Cassandra and Phil.

“Not this again, Cassandra,” the doctor said, not a hint of sympathy in his voice.

“No,” Cassandra shook her head. “It’s not like that, Phil. I just tripped, that’s all.”

Phil sighed. “You’re sure? Maybe you should go home and get some rest,” he said, a little more caring this time.

“Thanks, but I’m fine,” she said.

“You’d tell me if something was wrong, right?”

Cassandra smiled. “Yes, of course I would.”

Phil nodded in understanding and then walked off without another word. Cassandra hadn’t exactly lied. She had a history of random outbursts, but this felt different somehow. For one thing, her eye hurt. She hadn’t fallen that hard, and she didn’t remember her face hitting anything on the way down. So why was her eye throbbing?

 

…

 

The lights were on in his trailer when Jake returned home that night. Remembering that he had left them off, that meant someone else must have broken in. He should have been more concerned, but he had a pretty good idea of who it was.

“Baird?” he asked as he opened the door, not even bothering to look around to see if she was there. Instead he headed straight to his freezer to get an ice pack for his eye. He hadn’t looked in a mirror yet but he was pretty sure it would have already started to bruise.

“So the rumours are true? Two days out of prison and you’re already getting into bar brawls?” the blonde woman called out from his couch.

“Not my fault,” he mumbled, making his way over to her. “I didn’t even fight back this time. The hell you hear about this already, anyways? It only just happened!”

“Word travels fast around here,” Baird shrugged. “Not to mention I’m a cop. When Jacob Stone returns home after two years in prison, we kind of make a point to keep tabs on him.”

“Yeah well, you’re wasting your time,” he plopped down in a recliner across from the couch Baird was sitting in. “I’m not looking for trouble.”

“No, but it still has a way of finding you,” she raised an eyebrow at him. “Listen, Stone. We’re friends, but I’m still a cop. I have a job to do, whether I want to or not. So can you please try a little harder to stay out of trouble?”

“Honestly, Baird. Have a little faith,” he smiled.

“Says the man with an ice pack on his eye,” she said as she got up and headed to the door. “I mean it, Stone. You’re out on parole, it’s not a free ride. One wrong move and I’ll personally see to it that you’re back in prison.”

Jake waved his free hand at her. “Yeah yeah. I can always count on you, Eve.”

He watched as she rolled her eyes at him before slipping out the door. She was tough, but he was glad to have her in his life. These days especially, he needed someone he could count on to keep him straight. Baird was always there for him, whether he wanted her to be or not.


	3. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for all the kind words on this story so far! I've had people tell me that they went out and watched this movie because of this fic and that just means the world to me! I'm so sorry for the delay with this next chapter. I had trouble setting it up and figuring out how I would deal with things once they became aware of each other. Hopefully it's easy to follow, but if it's not please let me know! =)

Jake lay haphazardly across his messy bed, the sun shining bright through his window. He was perfectly content to stay like that, unable to think of any reason why he should get up and face the day.

Still half asleep, he was slowly eased into consciousness by the sound of his ringing phone. Ignoring it at first, the ringing continued to grow more and more persistent until he finally decided to answer it. He sat up, realizing that the phone wasn’t in it’s cradle on the bedside table, and frantically started shuffling his sheets around until he found it.

“Hello?” he asked groggily, though suddenly jumping up when he realized who was on the other end.

“Where the hell are you, Jake?” his boss asked sternly. “You were supposed to be here ten minutes ago!”

“Shit, yeah. Sorry,” he mumbled, the phone now tucked between his neck and shoulder so that both his hands were free to start getting dressed. He shuffled into a somewhat clean pair of jeans while assuring his boss that he would be there shortly. “I swear, this won’t happen again. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

Clicking the phone off, Jake tossed it back onto the bed without a second look. He grabbed his keys from their usual spot on the kitchen counter and headed out the door to his truck.

 

…

 

Cassandra had made plans to meet Ezekiel for lunch at a local diner that day. She had arrived to town a little early, and decided to park her car in a public lot and walk downtown.

Cassandra loved window shopping. She could spend hours walking the streets, stopping to look at all of the displays in the windows. Sometimes something would catch her interest and she would venture into the store, but usually she was content just browsing from the street.

On this particular day, Cassandra found herself standing outside a small boutique, admiring all of the outfits they had displayed. She hadn’t come looking to buy anything, but everything looked so pretty, she couldn’t help but go in for a closer look.

“Can I help you find anything today?” the girl behind the counter greeted her cheerfully. Cassandra smiled and shook her head.

“No thanks, I’m just browsing,” she said, her fingers tracing along the edges of a flowery skirt she had her eye on. She didn’t need any new clothes, but it was so _pretty_.

As she continued to browse, Cassandra found herself humming along to a song that she had stuck in her head. She just barely recognized it as Flowers in Your Hair by the Lumineers. It wasn’t a song she listened to often, and she found it strange that she could remember the tune so vividly.

 

…

 

Jake flew down the open highway in his truck, praying that he wouldn’t come across any cops fishing for speeders. He wasn’t in a position to get any tickets right now, but he also wasn’t in a position to lose his job, either. Not that his work was anything special, no one really wanted to hire someone who had just gotten out of prison after two years. Jake was lucky that he had an old friend willing to hire him at his car wash.

Still not fully awake, Jake turned on his radio, hoping that some music would help perk him up. The preset station was playing some folky song that Jake didn’t recognize. It was catchy enough, but he wasn’t in the mood for that sort of thing. With one eye still on the road, Jake reached forward and started to play around with the tuning dial.

“The hell!?” For a brief second Jake could have sworn he saw another hand over his. A woman’s hand. And there was more. He couldn’t quite place it...was that a dress where his radio was?

But it was early. He was tired. And with his eyes still focused on the road he had only been looking at his radio in his peripheral vision. An optical illusion, that’s all it was. For a brief moment Jake closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose before turning his attention back to his hand. The ghostly figure of the woman’s hand was still overlapping his.

 

…

 

Cassandra froze, her hand still hovering over the dress she was looking at. She must have been losing her mind. Or maybe it was just the lighting in the shop. But Cassandra swore she could see a hint of a man’s hand hovering over hers. She stared at it for a moment, entranced by what was happening.

She was suddenly very aware of her surroundings. But they weren’t her surroundings. She felt as if she was in another place. Somewhere warm. She could see an open road in front of her. But physically she was still in the boutique. What was going on?

Suddenly Cassandra caught sight of a large truck coming her way.

“Watch out!” She shrieked, though she wasn’t sure who to. Panicked, she stumbled a few steps backwards.

 

…

 

_“Watch out!”_ Jake could hear a woman call out to him clear as day, but there was no one else in the truck with him. Startled, he looked up, away from his radio, and noticed a large transport truck coming straight at him.

“The hell!?” Jake shouted, shocked by both the truck and the voice. He quickly turned his wheel to the side, pulling over onto the side of the road and avoiding colliding with the truck at last minute.

_What did you just say?”_ he heard the voice again. What the hell was going on?

“Who said that?” Jake demanded, looking all around him, trying to find the source of the voice.

 

…

 

_“The hell?”_ Cassandra thought she could hear a man’s voice. There was no one else in the boutique except for the female employee, but the voice came in clearly as if there was someone right next to her.

“What did you just say?” she asked, trying not to sound panicked. She turned quickly, wondering if someone had snuck into the store when she wasn’t looking. Cassandra was aware of the worried looks she was getting from the employee.

_“Who said that?”_ she heard the man say again, and Cassandra was certain that she was losing her mind.

“Stop this!” she shouted angrily, making a break for the door. “Stop it!” she ran out of the shop and didn’t stop until she was tucked into the little alcove of the empty store next door. “Stop, stop, stop, stop.” She didn’t even realize she was still muttering to herself. Cassandra had had hallucinations in the past, but this was something different.

_“The hell is this? What is going on?”_

 

…

 

_“Stop, stop, stop, stop…”_ Jake could hear the woman whispering in his head. She sounded as confused and panicked as he was. Unable to sit still, Jake opened his truck door and hopped out, pacing back and forth and he, too, tried to understand.

“The hell is this? What is going on?” he mumbled to himself.

_Stop it! Stop this, stop this!”_ Jake put his hands to his ears as he desperately tried to tune out the voice. Finally he had had enough.

“Hey, shut up!” he screamed out of frustration. Suddenly the voice stopped. Jake’s eyes widened in surprise. “Can you hear me!?” he asked, though he wasn’t quite sure who he was talking to. “Who are you!?”

 

…

 

_“Hey, shut up!”_ the man in Cassandra’s head was shouting. Was he talking to her? Could he hear her? She stopped her talking, but she couldn’t help the tears that started to fall. _“Can you hear me!? Who are you!?”_ she heard him ask.

“I’m sorry,” she managed to get out between sobs.

_“I’m sorry? What am I sorry about? What did I do?”_ he didn’t sound angry anymore. He spoke quickly and desperately.

“Who are you?” Cassandra finally asked.

_“Hey, I asked you that!”_ the man shot back.

 

…

 

_“Who are you?”_ the woman asked.

“Hey, I asked you that!” Maybe she couldn’t hear him? But something was definitely up. Jake could still see beyond his own surroundings. Whatever was going on, it was more than just a voice in his head. “I’m...I’m looking at a store window. Am I looking at a store window?”

_“Yes. I am,”_ he heard her answer.

“Uh...are you me?” Jake was really confused.

_“No. No, no, no, you’re in my head! I’m… I’m losing it. I’m so scared.”_

Whoever this woman was, she sounded terrified. Jake was never good at dealing with emotional women --or emotional people in general-- but he knew he should say something. “Where am I?” It was the first thing that popped into his head.

 

…

 

_“Uh...are you me?”_

Cassandra crouched down, her back against the store. “No. No, no, no, you’re in my head! I’m… I’m losing it. I’m so scared,” she cried.

_“Where am I?”_

“What?” What was this guy talking about?

_“Where am I?”_ the voice repeated.

“You’re...you’re on the road. You’re on a road. There’s a truck...I don’t understand. What does the truck mean?”

_“Uh, it means I have a truck. It’s my truck. I have a truck.”_

“You have a truck.” Cassandra confirmed. She was starting to calm down now.

_“Yeah. Why, what do you have?”_

Cassandra forced a small smile. Small talk? Some guy was inside her head and he was making small talk? “Uh...a Range Rover.”

_“Nice. Safe.”_

Cassandra laughed, finally starting to come back to reality. She took a deep breath and took in her surroundings, this time prepared when she looked out onto the cold, busy street and saw it replaced with an empty, rural highway.

“I can see out there. And I can see here, too,” she spoke in awe. “One’s close, and one’s far away. I just need to focus, and I can see what’s in my head.”

 

…

 

Jake had finally relaxed. Talking with whoever the hell this woman was had helped calm him down. He took a seat on the road, his back leaning against the front of his truck, one leg stretched out in front of him and the other bent. He rested an elbow on the bent knee.

_“One’s close, and one’s far away. I just need to focus, and I can see what’s in my head.”_

“This ain’t your head, lady. This is New Mexico,” Jake corrected her.

_“Wait, you’re real.”_ It was a statement, not a question. _“You’re a real person!”_

“That’s the sweetest thing anybody's said to me all day.” Jake chuckled. He suddenly started to feel a chill, and wrapped his arms around himself. “It’s cold. Are you cold there?”

_“Yeah. Yeah, it’s almost winter.”_

“I can feel it. This is too crazy. I mean, I can hear you like…”

_“Like I can hear myself,”_ the woman finished his sentence for him.

Jake shook his head in disbelief. “Where are you? I mean, you’re not in my head, so where are you?”

_“New Hampshire.”_

“New...New Hampshire? Get outta here! Wait a minute, what day is it?”

_“Um, Thursday. The 24th I think?”_

“Okay, well that’s today. What time is it? Do you have a watch?” Jake asked, and then looked down at his wrist instinctively. Once again he could see not just his wrist, but this woman’s wrist as well, and her watch was two hours later than his. “Holy shit, you’re in the future!” he said with disbelief.

 

…

 

_“Do you have a watch?”_ the man asked Cassandra. Without replying she looked down at her wrist. _“Holy shit, you’re in the future!”_

“No, I’m in a different timezone,” Cassandra tried not to laugh.

_“Oh, yeah. Right.”_

Suddenly Cassandra thought of something. “Can you hear my thoughts?”

_“I don’t know. Think somethin’.”_ the man answered.

“Okay,” Cassandra closed her eyes and thought hard about the first thing that popped into her head. A moment later she heard the man again.

_“No, I got nothin’.”_

“I’m thinking about new sneakers,” she told the man.

_“Hmm, alright then. Hey, what if you--”_

“Hey Cassandra, are you okay?” Cassandra jumped as Ezekiel sneaked up on her, pushing the strange man’s voice away.

“Oh...uh, yeah. Ezekiel, I’m uh, I’m fine,” she tried to smile, though her friend didn’t look convinced.

“You sure?” Ezekiel raised an eyebrow at her.

“You know me, Jones,” Cassandra tried hard to steady her voice. “I’ll be alright.”

“Well, I’ve been waiting in the restaurant for you. Are you coming or what?”

“Yeah, sorry,” Cassandra nodded. “I’m coming. Why don’t you go on ahead. I’ll be there in a minute.”

Ezekiel gave her a worried glance before hesitantly walking away. Lucky for her, he was used to Cassandra’s occasionally weird behaviour.

 

…

 

Jake wasn’t sure what was going on. One minute he was having a perfectly “normal” conversation with the girl inside his head, and the next she was gone.

“Hello? Anyone there?” he asked, but no one answered. He stood back up and returned to his pacing, occasionally calling out but receiving no response. Finally, several minutes later he heard her again.

_“Are you there?”_

Jake let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding. “Yeah. Wow, uh...I guess we got...disconnected?”

_“Yeah, sorry. My friend was coming, I had to cut you off.”_

“Can we do that? How?” Jake asked in disbelief.

_“I could feel you trying to come in. It was this kind of swimy feeling? But I could stop it.”_

“Oh, well uh, that’s good to know,” this whole thing was a lot for Jake to process.

_“Yeah. Listen, I can’t talk here. There’s too many people.”_

“Yeah. I guess I can’t really talk, either. Assuming I still got a job, I need to get to it,” Jake suddenly felt a rush of panic as he realized just how late he was going to be now. “But we, uh, we gotta talk about this!”

_“Yeah, okay. Later, though. Maybe ten tonight?”_

Jake counted backwards in his head quickly. “That’s eight for me. Yeah, that should work. And uh, and if it doesn’t work for some reason then...”

_“Then it was nice...meeting you,”_ the woman spoke sincerely.

Jake smiled as he looked out, suddenly very aware of his...no, _her_ surroundings. “Hey, it’s snowing!” Jake had only experienced snow a few times in his life, and never like this. It took all his effort to drag himself away from the experience and back into his truck.

He still had no idea what had just happened, but suddenly life seemed a little easier to deal with. Jake couldn’t wipe the giant grin off his face as he got back on the road, on his way to his dull, dead end job. At least now he had something to look forward to.


	4. Chapter 3

Ezekiel had claimed a corner booth in the diner and was waiting rather impatiently when Cassandra arrived.

“Finally! I’m starved,” he said with a hint of annoyance, though quickly softening his tone to ask, “Is everything okay?”

Cassandra smiled and nodded. “Yeah. Everything’s fine. At least, I think so.”

“You’d tell me if there was anything to worry about?”

“Of course, Ezekiel.” It wasn’t exactly a lie. She probably would tell him if she knew there was something to worry about. At this point, she wasn’t really sure what was up. If anything, the whole experience outside the shop had just been a vivid hallucination. And although most people would file vivid hallucinations under something to worry about, Cassandra had grown so used to them that she hardly gave them a second thought.

But then again, if it wasn’t a hallucination (and she hoped so much that it wasn’t), was whatever sort of connection she was having with this stranger something to worry about? She didn’t feel worried about it, but maybe she should. Cassandra didn’t know this man. He could be a serial killer for all she knew. But she couldn’t help it. Something about the sound of his voice had been comforting to her. Sure the whole situation was insane, but she found herself looking forward to talking to him again, to figuring out what exactly was going on.

Cassandra found herself drifting in and out of the conversation, only half listening to Ezekiel talk about the latest episode of whatever science fiction show he was into at the time. He could talk about that for hours anyways, so he didn’t seem to notice that Cassandra had her head in the clouds.

 

…

 

Jake arrive to work an hour late and received several disapproving glares from his coworkers, but no one said anything. He knew he was on thin ice, but he figured if he worked extra hard for the foreseeable future that this incident could be forgotten.

Working hard actually didn’t prove difficult for him that day. Washing cars was boring and repetitive, but if you had something to look forward to then the time just flew by. And Jake definitely had something to look forward to.

He still didn’t fully understand it. He wondered if he ever would. But that girl...whoever she was (he cursed himself for not getting her name) there was something about her that just seemed magical. Jake wanted to get to know her, figure out who she was, and why they were connected.

 

…

 

They were eating later than usual. Cassandra had forgotten that Phil said he had a busy day at the hospital and wouldn’t be home until late. She hadn’t even finished her dinner when she realized the time.

“It’s almost ten!” she exclaimed, breaking the silence that had been occurring.

“Why, yes it is!” Phil spoke sarcastically. “Is that cause for excitement?”

“No, no,” Cassandra shook her head. “I just, I forgot I was supposed to call Ezekiel about something.”

“Really? You made plans to phone him this late?” He raised an eyebrow at her.

“You know Jones, he never sleeps,” Cassandra forced a smile.

“Yeah, there’s something off about that guy,” Phil chuckled. “Well, there was something on TV I wanted to watch anyways.”

Cassandra carried her plate to the sink and snuck into the bedroom where she would have some privacy. She stood awkwardly in the middle of the room for minute, concentrating on opening up the connection once again. She could feel him trying to get in.

 

…

 

There was no way Jake would be able to describe the feeling he got when the connection was opened back up. The girl on the other side hadn’t even spoken yet but he could still feel her there.

“Whoa...honestly I didn’t think this would work,” The shock was probably evident in his voice, but then again who could blame him. “I thought I was just…”

_“I know, I thought I was, too!”_

“I just, I spent all day trying to come up with a reason as to why this could be happening,” Jake smiled as he paced across the room.

_“So did you come up with anything?”_ The girl sounded as anxious and excited as he felt.

“Well, one thing did occur to me...are you by any chance, Satan?”

He heard her laugh and found himself instantly warmed by the sound.

_“No, no my name is Cassandra,”_ she giggled.

“Wow, okay. That didn’t even occur to me,” Jake cursed himself again for not asking her sooner. “I’m Jake.” She was pacing around her room, just as he was. He caught glimpses of the walls and items that she was looking at, but she was moving too quickly to get a really good look. “Is that your place? It’s nice.”

_“Yeah. Well, it’s my boyfriend’s place. And mine too, I guess,”_ She had slowed her movements and Jake was able to get a clearer look around. This girl was definitely out of his league, she obviously lived comfortably.

“Oh, a boyfriend? Did you...did you tell him about this?”

_“Uh, no. I just wasn’t sure…”_ She hesitated.

“Yeah, probably for the best.”

 

…

 

It was the most awkward conversation Cassandra had ever had, but at the same time she had never felt so instantly comfortable with someone. She could see flashes of Jake’s home through his eyes. He obviously lived alone, no need to clean up after himself. But at the same time his place looked cozy. She had never really felt at home since moving in with Phil, but even having just experienced glimpses of Jake’s house she found herself wanting to curl up there.

“So, is this where you live?”

Instantly Jake’s movements quickened and she noticed him grabbing at the dirty laundry and empty beer bottles, trying to tidy things up. _“Well yeah. Uh...it’s a...it’s a little messy.”_ He chuckled. _“It’s kind of the maid’s decade off.”_

Cassandra giggled at that, but soon found herself...found Jake staring at a wall. “Wait, what are you doing?”

_“It’s just better this way.”_

“No, please don’t. I like your place.”

_“I uh, I don’t have girls over very often,”_ Jake admitted shyly, but moved away from the wall. Something about his last comment triggered something in Cassandra and she suddenly remembered something.

“Oh, I meant to ask you! Did you...did you get hit last night?” She remembered the intense pain she had felt when she collapsed onto the floor. Could that have been Jake?

_“Yeah, sure did! Son of a bitch just came at me before I knew what was comin’.”_

“I was there!” Cassandra exclaimed. “Or, I felt it like I was there!”

Cassandra suddenly heard footsteps coming her way and quickly reached for her phone, holding it up to her head just in time for Phil to come in.

 

…

 

She had felt that? This thing went deeper than just sight and sound? Jake couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

Suddenly Jake caught a glimpse of a man standing in the doorway, though not his doorway.

_“Sorry, I was just telling Ezekiel about something that happened on my way home today, I’ll try and keep it down,”_ He heard her whisper to the man, who nodded and then walked away.

“That was very smooth. Boyfriend?” Jake asked.

_“Thank you. Yeah, that was Phil.”_

“He’s uh, he’s a good lookin’ guy,” The conversation had suddenly gotten awkward.

_“Yeah. He’s a Doctor.”_ Cassandra bragged.

Jake had never expected a romantic relationship with the girl inside his head, but he couldn’t help but feel a little jealous. “Wow, a Doctor? Impressive.”

_“Yeah… I should probably go,”_ She spoke hesitantly. Jake had a feeling it wasn’t that she actually wanted to go, but more like she had to.

“Okay. Do ya wanna talk again tomorrow?” Jake asked, hopefully.

_“Yeah...but after Phil goes to bed,”_ Cassandra whispered. If Jake didn’t have a direct connection to her head he probably would never have heard it. _“You’re not planning to get hit again, are you?”_ She asked a little louder that time.

Jake chuckled. “Nah, it’s not in my book at least. I don’t usually do that, anyways. Worst I ever took was...oh my god...”

_“What?”_

“Let me ask you something,” Jake started slowly. “Did you ever… did you ever go sleddin’? Did you ever go sleddin’ and get really hurt?”

 

…

 

Cassandra sat down on the foot of the bed, the memory from when she was a little girl suddenly coming back to her. “I hit a tree,” was all she could bring herself to say.

_“Jesus Christ!”_ Jake shouted and it sounded like he was standing right at her ear. _“I got knocked out cold! I must’ve been out for more than a minute!”_

“I still have the scar,” Cassandra subconsciously rubbed her head where the scar lay. “Jake, that was twenty years ago,” she whispered.

_“I’ll be damned.”_

 

…

 

Later that night Jake lay on his back against the hood of his truck, his hand brushing his the same exact spot he knew Cassandra had hit the tree. He could feel it like it was yesterday. It had been twenty years, and it hadn’t even happened to him, but he could feel it like it was yesterday. How long had this been going on?


End file.
